Video conferencing solutions also change the way people participate in meetings

A few months ago, European cities were completely cut off from air travel by a spew of volcanic ash from an eruption in Iceland. As air travel came to a halt, a lot of business travels woke up to the importance of video conferencing solutions like the one offered by RHUB.

Unlike the usual telephone call or email, video conferencing is almost equal to talking face to face with an individual, with the slight difference being that the participants are not sitting next to each other and talking. Video conferencing solutions vary from each other in the degree of service, and not in their nature.

A lot of research has been conducted on the efficiency of video conferencing, and many of the studies conducted argue that video conferencing causes the minds to process information differently than they would during face to face meetings. An example of such case studies is the one done by Stephanie Watts and Carlos Ferran in ‘Management Science’ on September 2008.

Researchers on this subject feel that people who use the RHUB web conferencing appliance or any other video conferencing service end up using more of their cognitive abilities than those people who communicate face to face. This is because a greater cognitive load would be used for functions such as identification of the speaker, detection of movement, coordination of eye contact, conversation pacing and turn taking.

Moreover, cognitive attention would be greater because the participants of a video conference would be more self-aware. With a bigger cognitive load, the mind would cut back on its ability to evaluate the information being shared by the other participant. This may be done with heuristics, like the perception of that participant. As a result, the decision on whether to accept or adopt information would be made less on the quality of arguments being shared by the participant.

The study conducted by Watts and Ferran resulted in the report that talked about the difference between video conferencing and face to face communication. This field study was done on medical professionals, and it was found during the study that participants who attended a video seminar were influenced more by the speaker’s likeability and less by the quality of arguments presented by the speaker. In the case of a real conference attended in person, the opposite pattern was found. Even in this study, the researchers agreed that the difference in pattern was due to differences in the cognitive load of the participants.

As a result of these findings, the authors of the study argued that video conferencing is not simply a replacement for face to face meetings. These video conferencing solutions also change the way people attend and participate in meetings. Participants end up using less of their ability to systematically and rigorously analyze the arguments and information presented by the other party during a video conference. However, it must be noted here that Watts and Ferran’s study was based on video conferences where participants did not know each other before.

What does this study mean for business leaders? Likeable leaders who find it difficult to put forth a strong argument in favor of a proposal should use video conferencing services like that of RHUB instead of meeting with participants face to face. If required, a leader may also hire a likeable person for the purpose of presenting proposals or presentations through video conferences.

Additionally, if a virtual team participates in web based meeting and the leader has to make the team process information more systematic, he/she can reduce the cognitive load caused by video conferencing. This is possible by training the team properly about how to participate in video conferencing.

Some good video conferencing services like RHUB provide this training. In addition, participants can also be allowed to practice video conferencing with each other so that they become familiar with the way everyone performs in a video conference.

One more thing that virtual leaders can do to lower the cognitive load on participants is to make it easier for participants to concentrate on the logical and data-centric parts of the meeting. This can be done by opening another window along with the video of the presenter, where a slide show or a systematic list of arguments can be laid out.

So, you can see that video conferencing solutions like the one offered by RHUB 6-in-1 web conferencing and remote support appliance may not be comparable to face to face meetings, since video conference changes the way in which information is processed. As a result, it may not be possible to make video conferencing the same as face to face meetings just by improving the video streaming quality. However, service providers such as RHUB can help you reduce the cognitive burden on the participants of video conferences, and make your online meetings more effective.

Research show that remote working has several benefits for companies

According to a European Foundation for the Improvement of Living and Working Conditions survey, remote working is extremely attractive for most employees.

The survey, which investigated how European companies are providing flexibility to its employees to balance family and work, has found that 73% of the staff benefiting from more flexibility at work finds that more flexibility gives them a higher job satisfaction, with 61% of managers stating that they were feeling the benefits.

Remote working is one of the most important ways to provide a greater flexibility at work allowing employees to better manage and balance their family and work life. As such, the survey found that remote working is becoming common practice in the European countries, with the numbers rising exponentially over the last ten years.

In 2000, only 5% of European employees were working remotely, while in 2005 this number rose to 7%. In 2011 these numbers range from 24% in countries such as the UK and Italy, to 51% in Sweden, which shows that the technological developments in these last five years have led to a significant growth in the adoption of remote working technologies by European companies.

Research has shown that remote working has several benefits for companies and employees alike. On one hand telecommuting allows companies to save money and time, on the other employees save the trouble of travelling to and from work and allows them to work from home, increasing satisfaction and productivity, from which companies benefit as well.

Surely, remote working is not without its faults. Some might say that decreases communication between the employers and the management or that employees might become distracted more easily since they’re not working on the office.

In the end, it is always about technology. For telecommuting to work effectively companies must implement that right solutions to connect remote workers to the office. Today there are very good choices in the market, such as RHUB 6-in-1 web conferencing and remote support appliance which allows employees to work remotely while, at the same, they can be contacted and assisted remotely at any time using the video conferencing and web conferencing tools implemented in TurboMeeting.

Nevertheless, remote working is expected to continue to grow dramatically over the next ten years and become common practice in companies all over the world.

What’s the most important reason for women to choose remote work?

Women are working remotely, says a new research by Microsoft and 85 Broads, a global women’s network.  Microsoft and 85 Broads (a global network of 30,000 trailblazing women) have partnered for a campaign called “Your Office, Your Terms” which seeks raise awareness among women on the benefits of remote working and on how to telecommute efficiently.

To launch the campaign a survey was made to understand how women perceived telecommuting and what was their biggest challenges when working remotely.

According to the research, which surveyed the 85 Broads community, women are working on average 2.8 days away from the office (over half the week), though they feel they should telecommute a little bit more – 3.1 days on average. The survey also shows that almost everyone would rather have a regular remote working schedule and that 9% would like to be able to work remotely every day.

The most important reason for remote working was pointed out as being a better balance between work and home, which was followed by avoiding long commutes and increased productivity. The survey also found out that most women (62%) feels that remote working increases their productivity.

When asked what their biggest challenge was, 49% has answered that it was technology. 

In fact, technology is one of the biggest issues when doing remote connection. On one side there is a market where there is no shortage of technological solutions and tools for remote access, and most managers and IT managers really don’t know where to turn to. On the other there is still this opinion on the part of managers that the equipment used by the employee at home isn’t really their responsibility.

Managers must look for and deploy the right solutions and, at the same time, provide employees with the equipment they need to perform at their best from their homes. There are several solutions in the market which stand out because of their quality at reasonable prices, such as RHUB 6-in-1 web conferencing and remote support appliance.

Managers that say that their employees are working less at home than in the office should be aware that most of the time this happens because employees aren’t given the right tools to do their jobs efficiently.

The “Your Office, Your Terms” campaign will be running the whole month of November as well as in December, with a blog and several events which are aimed at showing women the benefits of telecommuting.